Press release

Tunisia tops familiar foe for first victory

Tunisia celebrates a point during its victory over Egypt.

Niteroi, Brazil, August 5, 2011 – Two teams very familiar with each other squared off in Friday’s second Pool G match, with Tunisia coming out on top of Egypt, 3-1 (23-25, 25-21, 25-18, 25-13) at the Caio Martins gymnasium.

The victory was Tunisia’s first of the FIVB Volleyball Men’s Junior World Championship 2011 as it improved to 1-0 in Pool G and 1-3 overall. Egypt is 0-1 in pool and 0-4 overall.

Tunisia took advantage of its fellow African nation’s 42 team errors while committing 23. Tunisia led in spikes, 44-34 and in service aces 7-6 while Egypt led in blocks, 14-5.

Tunisia’s Racam Siala led all scorers with 21 points on 18 attacks, two blocks and one service ace. Mohamed Arbi Ben Abdallah added 14 points, all on spikes.

Eslam Abou El Hassan led Egypt with 20 points on 16 spikes and a match-high four blocks.

In the first set, the teams were tied at 6-6 when Egypt scored twice on a block by Karim El Shikh and an ace from Mohamed El Askolany to lead 8-6 at the first technical timeout (TTO). Tunisia scored on a spike by Mohamed Arbie Ben Abdallah, but Tunisia’s next attack attempt went out of bounds and Ahmed El Sayed took the serve for Egypt and helped the team score the next three points, including an ace, to lead 12-7. Trailing 18-15, Tunisia mounted a comeback when Egypt had a poor reception followed by a kill to pull Tunisia to within one at 18-17. But Tunisia’s next two attack attempts were out of bounds. Egypt reached set point first at 24-19. Tunisia scored three times before Egypt could shut down the set when Tunisia’s serve went long. Tunisia led in attacks 12-7 but Egypt led in blocks, 5-0 and in service aces, 5-1.

In the second set, Egypt held an 8-6 lead at the first TTO, but Tunisia tied the score at 9-9 and took the lead at 11-10 when Egypt’s serve went long. Mohamed Ayech followed with an ace for Tunisia, which held the lead for the rest of the set. Egypt led in blocks, 3-0, but Tunisia led in service aces, 3-1 and in attacks, 14-10.

Tunisia took an 8-2 lead at the first TTO of the third set, as Egypt struggled to keep its spikes in-bounds. Egypt did not give up and tied the score at 10-10 and then took an 11-10 lead on a block by Houssein Hussein and still led 16-15 at the second TTO. Tunisia’s Racem Siala tied the score with a spike and then took the serve, helping his team to a 20-16 lead. Egypt could not recover.

The fourth set went by quickly as Tunisia took a 10-5 lead and expanded it to 19-10 before going on to win 25-13.